The day I met a Dragon fruit was the day I realized I didn't have a clue about it until then.

My cousin was wearing a shirt and with a drawing of a green and pink stuff on the pocket.

Me: “What is that?”
Cousin: “This is a Dragon fruit.”
Me: “Wait, what? “
Cousin: “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen one?”

I was 22 years old back then.

After a year, I passed by a Korean supermarket. Saw a pinkish thing displayed outside their shop. I got curious to this weird thing. Grab one and checked the label. And guess what it was.

A DRAGON FRUIT!

It was one of those AHA moments! I then remembered my conversation with my cousin. Hurriedly grab my phone, took a photo of it and sent it to her.

Me: ”I finally know what a Dragon fruit looks like!”
Cousin: “Amen”

So when I met with my friend, Ceselle, who owns a Dragonfruit farm in Argao, Cebu here in the Philippines, I told her right away that I wanted to see what a dragon fruit plant looks like! And I was amazed with what I saw!

You probably know what this fruit looks like but for the sake of innocent people like me, let me just give them a short overview! So, it has a pink outer layering which looks like the scales of a dragon! I could compare the size of it to the head of my pet dog. The edible part is colored white(the kind I knew) with small black seeds. There you go! image source

HEALTH BENEFITS OF A DRAGON FRUIT

1. Just cointain 60 calories!
2. Vitamin C, B1, B2, B3
3. Minerals like Iron, Calcium and Phosphorus
4. Has low amount of cholesterol! Thus faster metabolism
5. Good for the due to its amazing power in reducing bad cholesterol
6. Rich in antioxidants!

WHAT MAKES A DRAGON FRUIT SPECIAL?

It’s flower blooms at night and wilts in the morning. Thus its nicknames "Belle of the Night", "Queen of the Night", and "Moonflower".

HOW THE FARM CAME TO BE

They started out by buying the climbing cactus from the Philippines then started ordering from abroad. They made a concrete post for each plant to climb on with recycled tires attached to the top of the post. Such resourcefulness! As of today, they have 150 posts! One cactus plant would cost her around 500-1000 pesos as investment. The budding plant starts to bear fruit after a year of maturity. It has 5-6 cycles of harvest in a year! Not bad for a business!

PRICE

The dragon fruit farm has high demand in the local market.
A kilo of Dragon Fruit costs 150 Php or 2.9 USD. I ordered 10 kilos.

So I have yet to taste the Dragon Fruit as a fruit. I only tasted one made from ice cream! Which is delicious by the way, so what more from an actual fruit right? The dragon fruit farm is a very good business venture since its demand is increasing nationwide and on the international side. Besides having low maintenance, the plants can produce fruits off-season. My friend has been reaping the rewards from her farm for about a year now and she said it has helped them a lot.

Thanks for reading! Stay tune and Steem on!
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